Students vie for robotics title

In this Feb. 16, 2013 photo, Cole George inspects his robot before competing at Eagle River High's robotics tournament in Eagle River, Alaska. Teams from Anchorage, the Mat-Su Valley and Kenai Peninsula competed for a chance to move onto the state tournament, which will be held March 8-9, 2013, at the University of Alaska Anchorage. (AP Photo/Chugiak-Eagle River Star, Mike Nesper)

EAGLE RIVER — High-schoolers from Anchorage, the Mat-Su Valley and Kenai Peninsula put their engineering skills to the test during a two-day robotics competition Feb. 15-16 at Eagle River High.

The results couldn’t have been better for the hosts.

All 19 Eagle River students, broken into five teams, qualified for the state robotics tournament March 8-9 at UAA.

The Cyber Wolves, made up of Thor Austin, Erik Korzon and Nathaniel Lunod, set a new state record of 410 points in the qualifying round.

The high score surprised the team, Korzon said.

“We actually weren’t expecting to do that well,” he said.

Teams of three or four maneuvered their robot in an enclosed space trying to place plastic rings on one of nine positions on a tic-tac-toe board made of PVC pipe. Each ring on the bottom row was worth five points, the middle 10 and the top row was worth 15. An additional 30 points were awarded for each tic-tac-toe.

Each aluminum robot can be no larger than 18-by-18-by-18 inches. While each team received the same kit, students were allowed to modify their robots as long as they stayed within specific guidelines.

The record-setting robot was anything but standard.

“We only used two or three parts from the basic kit,” Korzon said.

Students were responsible for the entire construction process — welding, soldering, electrical wiring — of their robots.

“What you see literally is what they do,” said Ryan Prnka, co-sponsor of the ERHS robotics club. “It’s not the adults.”

Students even handled all the computer programming.

“They actually write code,” Prnka said.

In just its second year as a club, Eagle River went from two teams to five this year.

The FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge is part of an educational initiative aimed at increasing students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math.